Creating a Feeling of Home for You and Your Family

We all have a unique idea of what the feeling of home feels like. Indeed, there’s a massive difference between walking into a “home” that feels like your home, rather than a “house” that feels like somewhere you live. The recipe for creating a feeling of home for you and your family is different for everyone, yet there is a fundamental recipe that will ensure you cover the basics in terms of the building blocks required to create the feeling of “home”.

It’s understood that home is different for everyone, for instance, for some people, a home is not a home without a dog running up to you at the end of each day, wagging his tail to welcome you home from work as if you had been gone for months. See, whether you have a big house or a little house, it doesn’t really matter, as it’s not the size or affluence of your property that creates a feeling of home – it’s the energy and feeling around it.

For some people, a lot of this energy and feeling is derived from taking care of small details such as having freshly cut flowers in the living room or cosy soft furnishings and warm lighting.

However, you can have all the cosy cushions in the world, but if your home isn’t being managed well and taken care of behind the scenes, you’re not going to get to that place of feeling “at home” within your space.

This article, therefore, looks at five ways to ensure a consistent feeling of “home sweet home” by taking care of some of the less glamorous but more fundamental aspects of creating a happy home life beyond the aesthetics.

STAY ON TOP OF THE BILLS

Keeping up with household bills can be stressful if money is tight. Of course, you want your home to feel like your castle – a sanctuary free from stress – not a situation where each time you go the mailbox, you dread seeing a bill, or even worse, worry that one day you might have a knock on the door from a debt collector.

The sense of staying on top of your bills creates a feeling of stability and certainty, whereas, when we let these things cascade out of control by burying our head in the sand the sense of home we crave goes out the window, as we retreat into survival mode where the feeling of home is unable to flourish and thrive.

BEHIND THE SCENES

There’s nothing worse than having to face the horrors of a cold shower in winter or a sweltering hot house in the middle of summer. Your plumbing, heating and cooling systems are vital components of creating a feeling of home.

You want to be comfortable in your home and these matters are essential to ensuring your comfort. Similarly, if you have a pet, you’ll want to keep up with regular flea treatment as a flea infestation certainly takes away from the comfort we associate with having a home.

GARDENING

If you come home each day to an overgrown garden, paint peeling off the fences, and rubble in the yard – it can create a feeling of chaos and a state of things feeling out of control. Even though these things are small, they can have a large effect on your psychology and certainly detract from your feeling of home.

Agreed, you don’t need a white picket fence with begonias growing in the garden, but a garden that feels “well kept” will help keep you calm and provide the feeling of serenity and order; whether you have a beautiful mature garden or a tiny backyard, keeping it in shape is an important factor of feeling at home within your space. Indeed, a simple hanging basket or a few pots of flowers with vibrant colours can really lift a space.

NEIGHBOURS

With regard to neighbours, not everyone is getting to get on with you and you’re not going to get on with everyone – also, some people are just plain difficult, but if you can try to get on with your neighbours it can pay dividends in terms of creating a feeling of “home” because this feeling extends well beyond the boundaries of your bricks and mortar – it relates to the atmosphere and community in which you live too.

CLEAN & TIDY

Keeping your home clean and tidy sounds like a no-brainer, but often this can snowball out of control and quickly turn into a chaotic mess if you don’t keep on top of it.

Hope this helps make your home lovely. Please note, this is a collaborated post. Thanks for reading.